We will show that conditions of public distress in Germany were in each instance responsible for the changes and, furthermore, that these legislative measures were, above all, inspired by criminological propositions that had played an important part in scientific discussions long before 1933. We will also show that the drafting of such legislative measures was strongly influenced by the knowledge and experience of other countries. We shall have to proceed from the assumption that a retroactive measure characterized only by an increase in severity of punishment does not constitute a violation of the principle _nullum crimen sine lege_ according to common German continental legal conceptions. If the prosecution should construe the substance of various laws as crimes against humanity, we will have to enter into an investigation of the actual living conditions which gave rise to the necessity for the legislation of strict measures. One of the cardinal determinants of any system of penal law is the principle of the deterrent influence of punishment. Variations in the forms and uses of deterrents are at all times dictated by circumstances. Thus, when living conditions everywhere are at high tension, deterrents, if they are to be effective at all, must be accompanied by a corresponding increase in severity of legislative measures. Some of the legal terms found in German court decisions that are to be examined by the Court will require explanation. Such terms as “dangerous habitual criminal,” “perpetrators of crimes of violence,” “juvenile major criminals,” “public enemies,” “asocials,” and “criminal type” [Taetertyp]. In defining these terms it will become apparent that they were used as necessary aids in the quest for laws and that they represented, by no means, a one-sided attempt at increasing the harshness of measures in the administration of justice. These terms were established for the purpose of setting up clear-cut, definable boundary lines encompassing a definite group of major criminals. Such a move paved the way for pronouncements of restricted judgments, i.e., less severe ones upon those who did not fall within that group. In answer to the question of sterilization, we shall outline its historical development in Germany and other countries both in theory and practice. We will find that sterilization, as a program, was advocated long before 1933 in Germany and even found champions in Socialist and church groups. Closer examination of the law under consideration will reveal the great care and caution exercised in hedging in its specific provisions. Should the law itself, however, lie beyond the pale of any possible extensive explanation, we shall then furnish proof that it has never been misapplied for political or race-political purposes.